The present disclosure generally relates to health and nutrition. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to nutritional compositions having whey protein micelles and at least one amino acid, and methods of making and using the nutritional compositions to optimize the flavor profile and physical properties of the compositions to provide improved patient health.
There are many types of nutritional compositions currently on the market. Nutritional compositions can be targeted toward certain consumer types, for example, young, elderly, athletic, etc., based on the specific ingredients of the nutritional composition. Nutritional compositions can also be formulated based on the certain physiological conditions that the nutritional compositions are intended to treat or improve, or may be based on desired physical or organoleptic properties of the nutritional compositions.
One goal of nutritional support is to increase the amounts of nutrients provided in nutritional compositions to provide a consumer with a sufficient amount of the nutrient to achieve a specific biological result. However, many nutrients that are used in nutritional compositions to provide a specific nutritional benefit to a consumer instead impart an undesirable taste or odor to the composition making it unappealing for consumption. As a result, the desired biological result is not achieved when the consumer refuses to ingest the composition due to its poor organoleptic properties. Thus, it is desired to provide nutritional compositions having increased amounts of nutrients while at the same time providing tolerable physical and organoleptic properties.